Gobekli Tepe Revisted: Lost Eden?

Hello Above Top Secretions, I haven't seen mention of this place in awhile, and thought it worthy of a revisit.

Are we sitting on top of the oldest temple ever designed? The site of the Garden Of Eden? Many questions still left unanswered. Older than the pyramids and Stonehenge?

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one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery. The megaliths predate Stonehenge by some 6,000 years. The place is called Gobekli Tepe, and Schmidt, a German archaeologist who has been working here more than a decade, is convinced it's the site of the world's oldest temple. Read more: www.smithsonianmag.com...

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The site of Gobekli Tepe is simple enough to describe. The oblong stones, unearthed by the shepherd, turned out to be the flat tops of awesome, T-shaped megaliths. Imagine carved and slender versions of the stones of Avebury or Stonehenge. Most of these standing stones are inscribed with bizarre and delicate images - mainly of boars and ducks, of hunting and game. Sinuous serpents are another common motif. Some of the megaliths show crayfish or lions.

Haven't heard anything lately from the site, I wonder if digging is still in progress?

First full size body sculptures ever found?

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Few humanoid forms have surfaced at Göbekli Tepe but include a relief of a naked woman, posed frontally in a crouched position, that Schmidt likens to the Venus acceuillante figures found in Neolithic north Africa; and of at least one decapitated corpse surrounded by vultures. Some of the pillars, namely the T-shaped ones, have carved arms, which may indicate that they represent stylized humans (or anthropomorphic gods). Another example is decorated with human hands in what could be interpreted as a prayer gesture, with a simple stole or surplice engraved above; this may be intended to represent a temple priest

Sources:
www.dailymail.co.uk...
www.smithsonianmag.com...
en.wikipedia.org...
www.redicecreations.com...

I'm ashamed to say, I had never heard of this before. It's actually very interesting, although some of the sculptures are so artistically poor they look as though I might have attempted them myself.

But very interesting information, and thread-worthy indeed. Thanks for posting.

It's also interesting to note the inscriptions...drawings are of simple crayfish and lions, rather than ET's.

Originally posted by Signals

Haven't heard anything lately from the site, I wonder if digging is still in progress?

New article
www.newsweek.com...
From the magazine issue dated Mar 1, 2010

Very interesting place

reply to post by ladyinwaiting


It's not surprising that you haven't heard of this before. For some reason, this dig, one of the most important in history in my opinion, has not been publicized very well at all. In fact, the statue above, called the Balikli Gol "Snowman" sits in a very small, local museum last I heard, even though it's the oldest statue in the world! Could be the political climate in the area. Very perplexing if you ask me.

This temple was deliberately buried about 8,000 years ago with earth. Why? There are so many questions here...

Originally posted by Iamonlyhuman
reply to post by ladyinwaiting

 

It's not surprising that you haven't heard of this before. For some reason, this dig, one of the most important in history in my opinion, has not been publicized very well at all.

My thoughts exactly, I ran across it while reading Nassim's blog here.

Well, no publicity could mean 1 of 2 things:

-they haven't found anything new

OR

-cover up

Originally posted by Iamonlyhuman
This temple was deliberately buried about 8,000 years ago with earth. Why? There are so many questions here...

Yup...

This one has been a big mystery so far as to why it was buried. I agree IT is the single most important discovery in human history. It comes from a period in our history when we were supposedly just simple nomadic herdsmen on the brink of agriculture etc etc etc.


Meanwhile they are well thought out and built temple complexes.
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They remind me of another site located in the middle of the Mediterranean on Malta. Prehistoric Malta

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The following video I made for my thread Origins of Atlantis/Lemuria Myths Part-1. Part-2 is nearly complete...


ENJOY!


[edit on 21-2-2010 by SLAYER69]

......and, it becomes even more interesting. They look like labyrinths.

What would be the reason for a cover up? Or to cover-up a cover-up?

The reason for the "cover-up" is that the Tepe's of early man when scrutinized for content (alignments Astronomical and relative to each-other) reveals that man that far back was calculating the circle (curvature) of the Earth to measure the full sphere by deducing the center between the Equator and the Pole.

Man wasn't to be at that time even aware of the Constellations of the Zodiac, much less Equinoxes as are all apparently being initially calended there at that time!

[edit on 2010/2/21 by YeHUaH ELaHaYNU]

I agree that it is indeed an important archaeological site as architectural knowledge is present which should have been non-existent. But the 'mystery' of why it was buried doesn't really need to be a mystery. There are a number of plausible reasons as to why the original builders (or someone after them) buried the complex.

- The original builders and their countrymen developed new religious/spiritual ideas which no longer required temples or the style of temple they had built. Them burying it could have been symbolic of them passing into a new age of spiritual enlightenment.

- They had to migrate for whatever reason and decided to remove all traces or just some (the temple complex). Once again this could have been for religious reasons.

- The people of Gobekli Tepe could have been defeated by an enemy who then could have proceeded to bury any important monuments of the former people instead of destroying them as a sign of respect.

Just some reasonable reasons I came up with from the top of my head. I doubt burying a temple/monument was an uncommon practice in ancient times.

I think the reason it gets so little attention is similar to why no one entertains ideas of the Sphynx being older than 4,500 years. That reason being that the three BIG monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) all tell us that the world is only 6000 years old. That and it means re-thinking many scientific notions that have been held as "gospel" (pun totally intended) for many years. The idea that the ice age ended 10,000 years ago, humans started hunting and gathering and then mysteriously, 6,000 years ago, the first culture, Sumer, popped up out of no where.

But thank you OP for bringing this topic back into peoples consciousness. We need to remember.

Originally posted by serbsta
- The people of Gobekli Tepe could have been defeated by an enemy who then could have proceeded to bury any important monuments of the former people instead of destroying them as a sign of respect.

Just some reasonable reasons I came up with from the top of my head. I doubt burying a temple/monument was an uncommon practice in ancient times.

That sounds like the most plausible explanation.

Could it have been some type of natural disaster, like mud slide?

Originally posted by davo2012
I think the reason it gets so little attention is similar to why no one entertains ideas of the Sphynx being older than 4,500 years. That reason being that the three BIG monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) all tell us that the world is only 6000 years old. That and it means re-thinking many scientific notions that have been held as "gospel" (pun totally intended) for many years. The idea that the ice age ended 10,000 years ago, humans started hunting and gathering and then mysteriously, 6,000 years ago, the first culture, Sumer, popped up out of no where.

But thank you OP for bringing this topic back into peoples consciousness. We need to remember.

No religion says that the earth is 6000 years old. Some religious figures have speculated it to be so, but ultimately, it has been dropped except by Young Earth Creationists who take everything in the bible literally. Misanthropic is a good term to describe that thinking. The idea of the earth being 6000 based on various chronologies using the biblical texts as compiled by the council of Nicea some 1700 years ago is indeed erroneous and readily provable as so unless of course you are dealing with people who utterly refuse any logic or rationality in their thinking at all! lol

This date is arrived at by speculation and conjecture within the churches, temples and mosques of the theists who believe so.

There is nothing in the bible, the torah or the quran that says "the earth was created on "x" date and we are now "x" years from that date.

also, nowhere in any of these sacred texts will you find any indication of a coming apocalypse. Nowhere will you find anything about a rapture or about people who are not Christians being left behind.

Much of this is complete fabrication by American based churches that claim ties to Christianity. That is to say, Mormonism.

just pointing it out.

[edit on 22/2/2010 by djusdjus]

I read this article today in newsweek. I am always fascinated by ancient history. Graham Hancock has been trying to prove that civilised man is much more ancient than modern archeologists would have us believe. He has found huge underwater structures that he claims were from before the last ice age.
In regards to humans trying to map the earth through these structures it is quite possible, but I think they had an understanding of the size and structure of the Earth already, even more accurate than what we have today. (Also a Graham Hancock theory, "Heavens mirror" but also theorized by others...google: salt lines and ley lines)
Check out some of his work, he also did a mini TV series you might be able to find on You tube.
grahamhancock.com

I bet if we were to look further into this we would find temples and structures around earth which go back further than this !

its a shame that for some reason the world doesnt want to recognise the fact that we are much smarter than we give ourselves credit for !

another thing that has always puzzled me , early civilisations all had different writing systems , the maya , the sumer and the egyptians ! no one uses these langauges anymore yet our langauges are based of of them , and it seems their langauges are far more complex than the basic alphabet !

it seems as though we couldnt learn to use their langauge and so have dumbed it down to make us understand the alien langauges !

jsut a thought for another thread

im not sure i want to be called a secretion ....you know wot secretion is right?

thanks for the video link...i found several other vids much more informative though.


if there was more info on the dig aspect itself, and what it reveals,
then we could do more than speculate.

for instance, what is the composition of the 'fill dirt' used to delibertely preserve the standing stones and the river rock walls which made up these round 'Temples' outer walls.

? is the soil just rubble mixed with dirt, or mostly field stones along with dirt from the natural hill of Gobekli tepe? This would be important in factoring how much time/labor/intensity was justified in filling up those former temples with fill dirt.

?were the structures built after excavation, & the Stella with retaining wall then built in the depressions they created in the hillside, and then backfilled with the excavated material?

it seems to me that the construction of these three circular 'Temple' units
were intended to be built below ground level, with roofs that blended in with the sorrounding ground level terrain... thus being hard to see -
in contrast to a free standing building built on the surface of the land.

These may have been 'temple' pits where many could gather at one time,
under the presumably thatched roofs supported by timbers... which spanned upon the stone 'T-column' supports.


Perhaps the neo-lithic, biblical 'Nimrod', had the place buried, to preserve the Legacy of the bygone era. OR just to get rid of a hazardous situation
where people or animals could fall into the former temples/ turned pits



Oh, and i think that the location of the site in Turkish 'Kurdistan' is a big
factor on the lack of ongoing news & publicity.
the area along with the German archeologists, are treading on thin-ice


Thanks,

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ADD; this response/coment to:

~ djusdjus ~ posted on 22-2-2010 @ 01:46

... No religion says that the earth is 6000 years old. Some religious figures have speculated
it to be so, but ultimately, it has been dropped except by Young Earth Creationists who
take everything in the bible literally. Misanthropic is a good term to describe that
thinking. The idea of the earth being 6000 based on various chronologies using the biblical
texts as compiled by the council of Nicea some 1700 years ago is indeed erroneous and
readily provable as so unless of course you are dealing with people who utterly refuse
any logic or rationality in their thinking at all! lol

This date is arrived at by speculation and conjecture within the churches,
temples and mosques of the theists who believe so.[...]

look up "USHER" in any search of your choice,
he's the guy in the 17th century who came up with the creation date of 4004 BC
using bible geneology and chronology. his figuring also dated the Flood at 2348 BC
(contast with pyramids ~2500BC & the inundation of the Black Sea ~5600BC, estimates by scientific method))





[edit on 22-2-2010 by St Udio]

[edit on 22-2-2010 by St Udio]

i think saying this site proves that humanity was more evolved than we thought is a big jump. imagine a 1,000 years from now when someone discovers cds and listens to allt he trash music out there and then one day stumbles across mozart or bach. they'll think, wow they were more developed than we thought.

not really, it's just there are always a few geniuses further along than everyone else. hell, we dont' have anyone that can hold a candle to da vinci. does that mean we say the entire 16th century is advanced? no of course not. we can distinguish genius from normality.

now this temple may be one of many. it could be an entire culture was making places liek this. or maybe it was an isolated area of "genius" people for their times.

Originally posted by sapien82
its a shame that for some reason the world doesnt want to recognise the fact that we are much smarter than we give ourselves credit for !

More often than not there's no money in it...

Here's a simulated layout-

Originally posted by mutantgeniusGraham Hancock has been trying to prove that civilised man is much more ancient than modern archeologists would have us believe.

Actually, it's Hancock and the public who tend to think archaeologists believe that civilizations aren't that old. Archaeologists, on the other hand, are busy working rock shelters and old habitation sites that date to the time of the Neanderthals (30,000 years and older) and older. Some ancient hunting/camping grounds have been dated to 75,000 years old:
en.wikipedia.org...

So to say that scientists think civilizations only started 5,000 years ago isn't right. Large organized cities did, but other sites are far older than large cities.

In regards to humans trying to map the earth through these structures it is quite possible, but I think they had an understanding of the size and structure of the Earth already, even more accurate than what we have today.

I think you'll find that the problem here is 'they couldn't demonstrate it.' In other words, if they had a "more accurate than what we have" understanding of the Earth, we'd see a lot more precision in the way they cut blocks of stone to uniform sizes and we'd have started modern inventions much sooner. A good set of engineering tools plus strong math plus literacy is what gave Sumer an advantage over much of the world some 7,000 years ago (their buildings were more complex than the Egyptians although as the Sumerians declined, Egyptian sculpture and large monuments (temple of Ramses at Abu Simdal) outstripped the Sumerian zuggerats.

If Sumer had happened (say) 10,000 years ago (end of the last ice age), technology distribution would have happened much earlier.

And... without a written language, you have no way of doing complicated math calculations. Just try taking an integral in your head or solving two simultaneous quadratic equations for starters. Easy on paper, but not possible otherwise unless you have a very good written language and symbols for the numbers and operations you need.